Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1596 A New Conspiracy (Part [-])
Gao Yushi has always believed that the so-called "Zhang Juzheng Reform" is not only too narrow in terms, but only one person is mentioned in the "Jialong Wanda Reform", and the most critical problem is that it does not solve the symptoms, it is nothing more than a headache Doctors treat headaches and feet.

On the whole, it is clear that from the beginning to the end, they want to continue the life of the country's finances, but they dare not squeeze out the pustules before applying medicine, and naturally they can only give up halfway.

The root cause of the failure of this operation against the Ming Dynasty, which was already covered with tumors, was not the death of the attending physician Zhang Juzheng, but the fact that the attending physician decided to only carry out conservative treatment from the very beginning, without surgical resection of the tumor, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. , but give some anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers and forget it. Whether you can make it up or not depends on your physique, will, and God.

As long as there are other ways to think about, playing luck has never been a highly pragmatic option, so he chose to kill Zhang Juzheng in advance, and personally conduct systematic treatment, that is, "deepen reform".

From the military industry system to the post system, from the one-whip law to the mandatory payment of business taxes, from the opening and closing of trade to the collection of financial power... High pragmatism is walking steadily step by step. Although the results are outstanding, it is gradually difficult.

The food chief system in front of him now is a stumbling block that will inevitably appear after the deepening of reforms.In fact, although the grain chief system had many problems when Zhu Yuanzhang first launched it, it has evolved from everyone's flocking to today's fear of avoiding it. It also shows that the internal problems of the Ming Dynasty have become more and more serious, almost dying. .

The first is the continuous annexation of land, leading to the polarization of the rich and the poor, and the rich and powerful have ways to avoid taxes, making it increasingly difficult to collect public grain.Daming raised a lot of princes, and as time went by, Da Zhu gave birth to Xiao Zhu, and Zhu became more and more.The amount of land the princes own has been exemplified many times in the previous article, so I won't repeat them here.

At the same time, bureaucrats and honorable groups are also relying on their power to continue to seize land. Xu Jie's incident in his hometown of Songjiang probably does not need to be introduced again.These dignitaries enjoy various political privileges, can reduce or exempt taxes, and even do not have to pay taxes.

Or some big eunuchs, because of their power, the local government dare not collect their family's tax, but under Gao Gong's examination method, they have to guarantee the full amount, so the officials and lords pass the loss on to the local ordinary people .

Some of these things have been discovered, and most of them have been punished, but Gao Yushi knows that what was discovered is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are still many who have not been discovered!The root cause of these problems lies in the preferential treatment of gentry, or the "privilege of fame and fame"-and this is actually one of the most inconvenient places for Gao Yushi, the top six scholar.

In short, as time goes by, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but most of the rich don't have to pay taxes or only need to pay very little tax, while the poor can't pay taxes.

Thus, tax revenues began to fall, but spending gradually increased.Especially since the middle and late period of Jiajing, under the southern Japanese and northern captives, the imperial court's expenditure has been increasing.In such a situation, the task indicators of the food chief increased, but it became more and more difficult to complete, and many people had to use their own family property to cope with it.Therefore, as Zhu Guozhen said, "If a family has a wealth of gold, it will be a beggar for a year (grain chief); if a family has more than ten strong men, it will be a beggar for a year."

Being a head of food would lead to bankruptcy, so of course no one would want to do it.

In addition, the privileges of the head of grain are gradually shrinking.When the grain chief system was first implemented, the overall planning of grain collection from ten miles and eight townships had many disadvantages, but at least it had a lot of power.Later, the imperial court split the duties of the head of grain, and there were "head of urging grain", "head of harvesting grain" and "chief of long-term transportation of grain".Restricting and supervising each other, relatively speaking, it is not easy to reach out and mess around.

After becoming the ancestor, the system of grain chiefs coming to Beijing to report on their duties and face-to-face interviews was gradually abolished, and the chance of being a grain chief to see the emperor being praised and being awarded an official was gone.

At this time, people found that being a grain chief not only cost money, but also had little power. Naturally, the local tyrants and evil gentry in the village refused to do this loss-making business again, so they pushed each other about the job of grain chief, and finally formed some unspoken rules .For example, several large households take turns to be the head of the grain, so the head of the grain has changed from the original "permanent charge" to "rotation charge".

But even so, the big households were still unhappy, so they later became "Pengchong" that the whole village had to share. Everyone is going to be unlucky, but that seems to be fair.

It's a pity that this so-called fairness itself is unfair. For example, if Huang Shiren asks Yang Bailao to collect taxes, Yang Bailao obviously dare not refuse to pay. Can you get it?

As a result, the grain chiefs who could not receive tax grains or gold flowers and silver could only "resign" one after another, and ran away with buckets.

In fact, due to the reform of practical learning, the situation of the current grain chiefs is somewhat better than that of the last years of Jiajing.However, just as Zhang Juzheng’s reforms were criticized for superficiality, as a top-down reform, the practical learning reform has so far failed to penetrate the local system, especially the grassroots.Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty where "imperial power did not come down to the counties", the problem of grain growth was still one of the representative phenomena of serious problems in the vast rural areas.

Since the problem exists, it is impossible for Gao Yushi, the Hubu Shangshu who is regarded as a radical reformist, to ignore it.However, this incident broke out so suddenly that it was hard for Gao Yushi not to suspect that there was fraud.

Where does the fraud come from? This requires reverse deduction, and it is also an idea that Gao Yushi has always been good at.For example, the grain chief system, which originally caused many grain chiefs to run away with buckets, was that the grain chiefs had to pay for the transportation costs of transporting grain to the capital.

After Emperor Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, the grain chiefs in the south originally only needed to transport food to Nanjing, but then they actually had to transport it to Beijing.However, since the one-whip method has been widely implemented, land taxes and grains can be converted into gold flowers and silver and handed over. Apart from the part kept by the local yamen, the grain chiefs can directly bring the silver to Beijing for the remaining part that needs to be handed over to the central government, or hand it over to the government. It is a hundred times more convenient for Jinghua to "consign" compared with the original escort of a large amount of cash.

But this matter has not been completely resolved, because even in the southern region, not all provinces have changed to a whip method. In the southwest, there is only one Chengdu government that collects money, and all other regions still collect grain.

In addition, Jinghua's "consignment" is not spread across the country like Hongchao's express delivery industry in later generations. In fact, it does not exist in many areas, or even if it does, the coverage is not large.

For example, Jinghua may set up a consignment agency similar to Cainiao Post in a county in most parts of the south of the Yangtze River, but in many areas in the southwest, not even one prefecture may have one, often two or three or even three or four prefectures Share a consignment agency.

This is where private capital is inferior to state-owned capital, even if it is highly pragmatic.The same situation is like the difference in network coverage between Hongchao and Midi in the later generations. Although Midi is a so-called developed country and the world's number one brother, its network coverage in rural areas with a small population is much lower than that of Hongchao.

Some people get excited when they say that the average internet speed of some developed countries is higher than that of Hongchao, but they keep silent about the fact that their internet speed is fast because these private internet providers only cover "key areas", while Hongchao even Even if there are only a few households in a certain village, it is necessary to ensure that they are constantly connected to the Internet. (The same goes for systems like electricity.)
So does this compare?Who cares more about the interests of the people?

But now Jinghua is also privately owned, and high pragmatism can't ignore the losses and roll out grain taxes and consignments of golden flowers and silver across the country.If it comes, if the grain long system is really completely abolished, if there are problems in the future taxation, grain and gold flowers and silver transportation, he, the Minister of the Ministry of Households, must be to blame.

In order to avoid such chaos, Gao Yushi can only spread out Jinghua's consignment business in an orderly manner at any cost, which will inevitably cause great financial pressure on Jinghua itself.

You must know that Jinghua's consignment business is now mainly "walking on two legs": one is in the south, mainly relying on river water transportation, and finally turns to sea transportation to Tianjin Port; the other is in the north, mainly relying on Jinghua's growing horse team, responsible for The area is dominated by the nine borders and adjacent inland provinces, while the Yellow River Basin can also be supplemented by water transportation, but it is not the main force.

Under such a plan, the southwestern mountainous area and even the southwestern part of Huguang, that is, the western part of Hunan in later generations, is difficult for Jinghua to carry out business in depth.There are quite a few water systems in the local area, but the hydrological conditions of many rivers in the local water system are very complicated, especially in the upstream areas. The rivers in some areas are wide but shallow, and in some areas the water is deep enough but the rivers are narrow and the flow is fast. In short, it is not very convenient to establish a unified system.

Jinghua’s favorite model is that a ship does not need to be transshipped from loading to unloading. For example, it starts in Wuchang and sails directly to Suzhou for unloading (at this time, the geographical division of Suzhou Prefecture is different from modern times. Belongs to Suzhou Prefecture), which can save time, effort and cost.

If it is inland in the southwest, even the same river may be divided into sections, and some places in the middle need to change to land for a section or even for a while, and then land for a while, the cost will rise all of a sudden, and it is also very inconvenient in management.

The above are just the troubles of various costs. Besides, Gao Yushi also thinks that there are other conspiracies possible.

For example, the national land tax, whether it is in-kind grain tax or gold flower and silver, is consigned by Jinghua uniformly. This makes people sleepless. If you Jinghua suddenly ran away with the money, what will I do next year in the Ming Dynasty? Officials from all over the country And the army have to go hungry?The officials may not be so hungry that they rebel, but if the soldiers are all hungry... who can take this responsibility?
Once Jinghua really has such a huge power, according to the attitude of "not hesitating to speculate with the greatest malice", Jinghua can use this to force the imperial court to make various concessions to it.

Perhaps Gao Yushi would not think this way at all, but if others want to speculate like this, Gao Yushi will not be able to prove his innocence.After all, I'm not saying that you will definitely do this, I'm saying that you have the ability to do this-what if?
When Gao Butang thought of this level, he was really startled into a cold sweat.If this trick was really deliberately designed by someone, then this trick is really too vicious!

If Gao Yushi is not a time traveler but a bureaucrat of this era, I am afraid it will be difficult to refuse this kind of power that can force the court to compromise once he succeeds. The temptation is too great.

There is a saying that "the emperor does not send hungry soldiers". If the money and food from the household department are in place, it depends on Jinghua's face. It is conceivable that Jinghua will have many ways to influence the government.Considering Gao Pragmatism's own political status, even replacing "influence" with "control" may not be an exaggeration.

Can the emperor allow this to happen?Obviously not!As long as the emperor is not confused, it is impossible to tolerate such a situation, even if that person is highly pragmatic.

However, the current trend has set off. As a banner of "radical reformers", high pragmatism cannot allow him to retreat in terms of political influence.

Fame can bring great influence to a leader, and with this as a backing, it can unite people's hearts and do great things that people can't do.But conversely, fame can sometimes force people to act against their heart, and to make decisions that should have been appropriate at inappropriate times.

Who is the designer of this conspiracy, Gao Yushi is still unclear, but he knows that this person made a good move.

Where is the trick?The ruthless thing is that if you don’t see through it, if you step on the high pragmatism, you will suffer big losses not only economically, but also politically; Still have to suffer.

There is no need to explain the economics, only the political ones.

The former loss means that Jinghua will inevitably be missed by the emperor if he accepts this errand, and the worst result may reach the level of "unnecessary"; The banner cannot be held steadily, and they can only be forced to surrender the political initiative.The political power of the "three generations of Yuansuke's grace" at his hand may be seriously shaken.

So calculating, so calculating!

However, since you think highly of me so much, how can someone Gao let you down?
My practical education was born and exists to solve problems. I am highly pragmatic and can be what I am today, but it is not only because of the blessings of my parents!I became the Minister of the Household Department less than ten years after I became an official. Do you really think that I only rely on the holy family?

Then you'd be wrong, I'm relying on it to work out every time!
Gao Wushi had a plan in mind, but he was not in a hurry to act. Instead, he remained silent for a while, patiently waiting for the "abolishing the grain chief" incident to continue to ferment.

By mid-August, things were in full swing.It coincided with Halloween (Zhu Yijun's birthday) being August [-]th, and the emperor felt that there must be an explanation for this matter, otherwise this longevity would be unhappy, and he would spend his days watching all kinds of memorials and wrangling.

Some say that the long-term grain system has long been incurable and must be abolished, some say that it is the Taizu system, how can it be easy, some say that it will be easier to maintain the long-term grain system, and some say that it is an old disease and needs to be cured. It should be slow.

The emperor read the memorials for half a month, most of them were talking about this matter, and finally made his head as big as a fight.He also knew that Gao Yushi was in a dilemma when he couldn't wait for Gao Yushi's response, but the matter could not be delayed any longer, so he had to personally issue a letter to the Ministry of Households Yamen, and asked Gao Butang in a tactful tone about the recent What's your opinion on the dispute over the existence and abolition of the long-grain system?

"If Ai Qing has any suggestions, don't ask the rest, just come from the truth, and I will examine them carefully."

Gao Wushi looked at the handwriting, and found that the handwriting was actually an imperial pen, he couldn't help smiling, and thought: Enough is enough.
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(End of this chapter)